Silent Hills is, "not going to happen." That's according to filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who made the comment at an event honoring him during this weekend's San Francisco Film Fest. Del Toro had been co-directing the title, which would have been the ninth installment in the Silent Hill franchise, with Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima.

Rumors about the fate of the project began to circulate when Konami removed references to Kojima and his studio, Kojima Productions, from the official websites for Metal Gear Solid and changed the name of subsidiary studio "Kojima Productions Los Angeles" to "Konami Los Angeles Studio" as part of a reorganization at the publisher. Reports soon surfaced indicating tension between Kojima's team and Konami, suggesting that Kojima Productions may dissolve following the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain later this year. And then, late last week, it was learned that distribution of P.T., the "playable teaser" used to unveil development of Silent Hills, would cease on April 29, leading to further doubt about its status.

This wouldn't be the first time a video game project involving the director has gone up in smoke. He also collaborated with Volition on Insane, an unreleased survival horror title dropped by THQ in 2012, two years after first announcing it. Though del Toro expressed confidence that another developer would pick up where Volition left off, nothing has been heard of it since.

And now Konami is dead to me. This was the ONLY game from them I was looking forward to, and they pull this shit. I wouldn't be bothered so much if they hadn't released PT last year, but again they done fucked up. Fuck you Konami, fuck you!

Fireworks have all but been pissed on. I can't bear to play that P.t. demo now, as it truly will be just a "tease." This was really a beacon of hope for the near future of psychological horror. Who can I punch to quell this sadness and rage? Part of me is hoping that kickstarter could inspire further work, or perhaps we should just kick start konami. In the face. With its arse. Nonono...must remain philosophical. To the whiskey!

I have no idea what Konami even has anymore besides MGS. In fact, I'm confused as to why more and more companies are determined to cripple themselves by getting rid of IPs and setting themselves up for financial disaster by only making a handful of titles. It's just bizarre

I'm not a fan of horror games but as a fan of a successful game industry this deeply saddens me. The efforts put into PT was a sign of a lot of potential for this game to really be a memorable title for Playstation 4 and to see it gone... well... it's very very sad.

Crap. This was looking really promising. It kind of makes me wonder what the hell Kojima could have done that was worth Konami bending over backwards to screw up some of its most hopeful new offerings.

Sad, but honestly after that whole kerfuffle about Kojima being forced out of the company by the end of the year and his subsidiary being taken apart, it's expected that a big-budget project helmed by him and people he contacted would be cancelled.

Fuck you Konami for fucking up the one chance Silent Hill had at becoming good again, though.

Aiddon:I have no idea what Konami even has anymore besides MGS. In fact, I'm confused as to why more and more companies are determined to cripple themselves by getting rid of IPs and setting themselves up for financial disaster by only making a handful of titles. It's just bizarre

Louzerman102:What makes a company wake up in the morning and go "we need to become irrelevant and penniless?"

Would that apply to Konami. Sadly enough for the vindictive, console/PC games are a very small (14% last I checked, not irrelevant, but insubstantial enough that they could just stop making those games and reallocate funds into their other efforts) part of Konami's income, and even then PES was their most reliable one, since MGS had long breaks between main installments. They mainly live off of mobile games, making slot machines and running fitness clubs.

Goddammit, why is Del Toro plagued with having such great concepts on the slab for him but never being able to realise them? Pacific Rim was fucking awesome and it sold gangbusters worldwide, what the hell else do these companies need as proof?!

I have to admit I'm unhappy, I was REALLY looking forward to this game.

That said I'm not 100% sure that problems with Kojima are responsible. There was supposed to be a big renaissance of Survival Horror given the success of various indie games, and the projections that "Evil Within" was going to be a big deal. Survival Horror indie games seem to have been suffering despite some initial success, especially as everyone plays "follow the leader" and they seem to be getting lamer and lamer. Also "Evil Within" was according to some things I've heard not the huge success it was expected to be especially given the mixed reactions to the finale and game reveals.

The way it seems to me is that "P.T." was cool but they were also careful to say it might not have any real bearing on the game. Despite mentioning the director and who they were digitizing for the lead, there was very little in the way of concrete information or any news on how development was going on the game itself, which was surprising given that I think the game was supposed to be out come this October. I suspect Konami decided to cut it's potential losses and cancel the project for that reason. This is all just speculation however, looking at what I've heard, and where the industry seems to be going.

That said I would like to see Mr. Del Toro do a good horror game, and I do hope someone does manage to do another "Silent Hill" game and do the franchise justice in the process.

I can put this down next to Obsidian's Aliens RPG on the list of games that were unfortunately cancelled. It is a shame but I suppose it's better than them going ahead anyway and making a really crappy game. Still really sucks for the developers who probably put loads of work into making this good and now it'll never see the light of day.

Would that apply to Konami. Sadly enough for the vindictive, console/PC games are a very small (14% last I checked, not irrelevant, but insubstantial enough that they could just stop making those games and reallocate funds into their other efforts) part of Konami's income, and even then PES was their most reliable one, since MGS had long breaks between main installments. They mainly live off of mobile games, making slot machines and running fitness clubs.

Which would never have happened had they managed themselves better. Instead of growing as a games company through expansion of IPs and personnel, they decided to rely less and less on what they were founded as and have become utterly pathetic as a games company, not helped by their TERRIBLE eye for any sort of talent.. Which, weirdly enough, happened in the past generation with Konami becoming more and more contracted.

On the one hand, I was really not looking forward to Kojima being attached to any Silent Hill project. On the other, I kinda feel bad for Del Toro. The man is an under-appreciated genius of a director, but he just can't seem to get his projects off the ground. It's kind of a shame.

RJ Dalton:On the one hand, I was really not looking forward to Kojima being attached to any Silent Hill project. On the other, I kinda feel bad for Del Toro. The man is an under-appreciated genius of a director, but he just can't seem to get his projects off the ground. It's kind of a shame.

It's just a general case of a Japanese company growing less attracted to the niche that gaming occupies in Japan, while ignoring the enormous potential sales in foreign regions. Rising AAA development costs don't seem worth it when their games fail to appeal to general audiences in Japan.

As a firm believer that Silent Hill couldn't possibly get any worse, this is a damned shame.

Hardly surprising given Konami's current circumstances, though. I'm hoping once Kojima is finished with MGSV we'll see him join up with another major publisher, and then perhaps "P.T." can become a full fledged game without the baggage of it being a Silent Hill game inevitably coloring expectations and so on.

I'll go out on a limb and defend Christophe Ganz' Silent Hill flick - and would second Del Toro being involved in a film adaptation, perhaps of SH2, just to ensure the right level of fan-fallout and potential for greatness. Sure, the Ganz flick disrespectful to the lore that inspired it, but taken on its own it's got fantastic atmosphere and memorable practical effects to spare. It's very reminiscent of French/Italian 1980s horror films that relied more on mood and memorable imagery rather than logic or consistency. The flick would have probably raised less ire had Pyramidhead and other SH2-specific imagery not been used, but since this flick never went too hard with the whole "Personal Hell" angle, it's only a distraction in the broader context.

Besides, anyone who watched the 3D sequel to this knows how much worse it could have been.

I was wondering why there was a Silent Hill shooter arcade game at the freakin mall? Does Konami even know the IP that they are actually holding, or they just thought that Silent Hill is another well known zombie game? Now they decided to cancel something that could attract any kind of entertainment consumer. Hideo Kojima, Guillermo Del Toro, Norman Reedus, what kind of gaming company turning down those guys!? What does the guys at Konami even thinking!?

Well, that does stink. I really enjoyed the playable teaser. i was looking forward to a game with that type of feeling, but hopefully involving a town and not one hallway repeated again and again and again.